Third Quarter Reports: Luxenburg Donated Thousands to Local Democrats.
Former state Representative Geoffrey Luxemberg has many titles. Since August, he’s been the $72,000 a year chief of staff to the mayor of Middletown, Dan Drew. The Drew campaign may be broke, but Luxenberg was a prolific contributor to Democratic campaigns around the state during the third quarter of the year. Before taking the job in Middletown, Luxenberg was a campaign consultant at The Vinci Group, LLC.
The state’s election agency has been making more local finance campaign reports available online. Reports from towns in the program reveal Luxenberg donated $13,780 to local Democratic campaigns. That includes $1,000 to Connecticut Conference of Democratic Mayors. That’s the PAC Drew created with the assistance of Luxenberg when the Manchester Democrat was more overtly in the campaign consulting and management business.
There are two other notable municipal contributions. Two Democratic town committees reported contributions from “Team Dan Drew, Geoffrey R. Luxenberg , Treasurer” or “Team Dan, Geoffrey R. Luxenberg, Treasurer.” One for $250 went to Simsbury, Southbury received $200. There’s no “Team Dan Drew” or “Team Dan” registered with the SEEC. Luxenberg is not the treasurer of Drew’s campaign committee, nor was he in charge of the exchequer when his boss had an exploratory exploratory committee.
Dan Drew provides an explanation for his subordinate:
“Geoff Luxenberg is an active democrat. Since 2008, he has given over $70,000 to Democratic campaigns. In 2015, he gave over $7,000 and in 2016, his contributions totaled more than $19,000. He has been a prolific political donor, giving tens of thousands of dollars to democratic candidates and party committees at the local, state and national level. Geoff does not work for the Drew for CT campaign. The contribution to the Simsbury DTC was made in his individual capacity as a private citizen. The way it is reported on the Simsbury Democratic Town Committee’s October 10 filing is an error. A Team Drew PAC does not exist, and Geoff Luxenberg is not a treasurer of any political action committee.”
These campaign reports, intended to be simple when the legislature and M. Jodi Rell put the burden of paying for campaigns on the public, can still be a thicket of complications. Drew has run into a collection of them with his decision to obtain the home addresses of municipal employees and hit them up for contributions. The home addresses of certain public employees (police officers, for example) are confidential. Soliciting them has caused Drew many troubles, including a call by The Courant that he exit the Democratic race for governor. Drew’s campaign latest report complicates his original transgression by including those addresses with the municipal employees who responded to his solicitation with contributions.